Friday, November 28, 2008

Post Thanksgiving mortem

After watching the Michigan football team die in the second half against that school in Columbus. I tried to think of a way to not be negative about Rich Rodriguez's tenure here at the University so far. The most common saying thrown my way has been, all of his previous teams did really bad in their first seasons and they improved exponentially after that, i didn't accept that because this is Michigan and play like that is still unacceptable under any circumstances.

The conclusion i came to was that if the players who stay stick together they will be able to accomplish a better season next year. The biggest thing for this team in the off season is to preach teamwork and the ability to pick up for another's mistake, that means going after fumbles like you've never gone after fumbles before, block like your life depends on it not just your team's success. Together the Wolverines must stand or divided they will fail.

This season had promise in it, when they beat Wisconsin it seemed like everything was going to go right for this team, and the exact opposite happened. Threet got hurt and was never the same, the offensive line lost its sense of purpose and the secondary could not execute for some reason, except in the Minnesota. It seemed like every winged helmets worse nightmare come true and the problem was the team was not together it seemed like everybody out there was trying to take care of number one before busting their butt for the team.

In this case i want to single out two individuals for two very different reasons. Charles Stewart the strong safety has played like an embarrassment to all people named Charles especially Woodson and myself. His failed attempt at getting an interception against Illinois was the turning point in the game and quite possibly in the season because by playing the ball and not the man he allowed the big play to be made and exposed the world to the secondary's great weakness. Then, in the Ohio State he gets into it with one of the coaches for no reason that's been revealed so far. That is not only unacceptable behavior for a Michigan Wolverine it's unacceptable for any college football player to mouth off at a coach on national television especially if you're the one who's been screwing up lately. I'm glad he's graduating and i hope he finds something other than football to work in because he's been an abomination on the field.

Brandon Minor should be saluted for the following postgame quote:

You can’t really blame Rich Rod because everybody on the team did not buy in like they’re supposed to. We have a couple of guys not going hard,” he said. “We’ll correct that most definitely. That ain’t going to happen on my watch as a senior.

This is truly one of the most positive things that could happen to this team all season when Minor acknowledged this. He told the fans, we are taking the brunt of this season on ourselves as well as the responsibility of making it better next year. If there is anybody who should become the next great leader on the Wolverines for next season it's him.

Two things that Rich Rod will have to work on in the off season are:

1.) Teach the offensive line how to run block for your scheme and run these plays over and over again until you can get them to block correctly.

2.) Get the secondary to learn when to go for the interception, how not to get beat and how to break up passes.

Also i've been watching the Pittsburgh Steelers have some success with the type of defense HRG wants to run, their reason:

THEY ARE DEEPER AT LINEBACKER.

If Rich Rod wants to be successful on both sides of the ball he will have to load up on recruiting linebackers as well as recruiting running backs and linemen.

P.S.: It's not summer so i have to be able to post on all major sports individually now.

About Me

A Michigan man from WOLV TV and the Michigan Daily. I try not to make any subject taboo on my blog although i write mainly about sports. I try to keep it clean mainly cause when i start getting dirty i get really carried away.